An unworthy Deacon, named for the brother of God: James, striving to "work out his salvation with fear and trembling" within the Tradition (paradosis) of the Eastern Orthodox Faith. It is a strange and marvelous journey, and I am accompanied by the fourfold fruit of my fecundity. My wife, the Matushka or Diaconissa Sophia, is my beloved partner in the pursuit of Theosis, and she ranks me in every way.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Wanting to learn more about Christians in Lebanon

I found a professor named Habib C. Malik (more details about him here) who has written a number of interesting articles (and books, though I've not found them at the local library). Also, I found through a simple search of his name that he is accused of being a "neo-con", a "zionist" and "someone with an axe to grind against Islam", but that particular source also failed to engage ANYTHING that he has written, and of course tossing about such inflamatory labels is bound to earn the man my interest at the very least.

In my anti-Israeli evangelical recovery days (its an illness you get when you leave evangelicalism and realize you no longer have any grand theological need to support Israel and so you head in the opposite direction and revel in blaming them) I was given to believe that Muslims and Christians have lived in a beautiful disneyland-like ride of peace and harmony...until the Jews came. Professor Malik, amongst others, show that despite what I had been told, there are a good many Middle Eastern Christians who are not so anti-Israeli as I was led to believe. Sadly, the Christians of the Middle East find themselves caught in the crossfire and as the latter article notes they can and sometimes are seen as the enemy by both sides in the fight. In that older article, Professor Malik references the fears many Lebanese Christians had before Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000...as I heard it, many of their fears were later realized.